1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic software distribution (ESD) and, more particularly, to ESD methods an apparatus wherein a temporary URL is dynamically generated by an ESD server to provide a web page link to a download server.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic software distribution generally refers to the purchase and sale of software products or titles through a virtual store over the Internet and the subsequent electronic download of the purchased title from a download server to a client computer. The software titles available through ESD typically include executable program code and multimedia content. The virtual store is typically a website consisting of one or more web pages located at a merchant's web server that, when viewed at the client through the web browser executing at the client, display the store's contents, i.e., a listing of the available titles along with a brief description and price for each.
Although ESD is a highly preferable method and means for distributing electronically stored titles, ESD has also given rise to an entirely new set of problems and solutions in the protection of a software publisher's rights to its respective titles, as compared to distribution of “boxed” titles stored on disk or other readable medium and distributed through retail outlets. Without any protection of the publisher's rights incorporated into the ESD method or apparatus, after an initial copy of a title has been downloaded, such title would be capable of being freely copied and distributed without further payment to the publisher in violation of the publisher's rights.
To provide maximum protection to the publisher, when the client computer has accessed the virtual store and a title selection has been made, a sequence of events occurs which obtains payment information for the title, authenticates such information, and then makes the purchased title available for download. The availability for download is typically made through a web page that displays the purchased title and a download button. Selection of the download button through the client computer graphic user interface, i.e., a mouse click with the cursor placed on such button, sends a request to the download server with the URL of the purchased product.
Prior to the title being downloaded, download authorization may also have had to be obtained by using one of various digital rights management schemes. Generally, these techniques obtain and verify license information. Although the known digital rights management techniques provide a high degree of security, these techniques may also disadvantageously add significant overhead cost to ESD and, accordingly, limit their use to only such titles wherein maximum protection against unauthorized use is required.
Example of such costs include the establishment and programming of licensing and email servers typically used in the known digital rights management schemes. Although the overhead cost (as prorated against all such purchased titles) may be minimal when compared to the purchase price of an individual title, as in the case of expensive complex programs or widely distributed multimedia content, a limitation of such digital rights management schemes is that such overhead costs may significantly raise the purchase price of lower cost titles wherein some degree of unauthorized use may be tolerated by the publisher.
Although, the publisher may not be desirous of providing robust protection on certain titles, the publisher may also not be desirous of distributing such titles freely, such titles commonly known as “freeware.” The publisher may nonetheless only be interested in minimizing and not eliminating the number of pirated copies of the software. In effect, the publisher relies upon the honesty of a purchaser of a copy of a title, and thus being out of pocket for the purchase price, would not be induced to record a copy of the title on tangible computer readable media and provide such media to others.
Another disadvantage and limitation of digital rights management is that once a user has paid for a protected copy of software, certain events may occur which could cause such user to lose access to such software. These events include a crash of the hard disk in the client computer upon which purchased titles have been stored, thereby requiring a new copy of each of the titles to be loaded. However, even if the user maintained an archive copy of the original downloaded title, some digital rights management schemes will not allow the title to be reloaded on a new disk as a form of copy protection. Accordingly, the user either has to contact the publisher or vendor with proof of purchase to obtain a replacement copy of the title, or its “keys” to unlock the archived copy, or be forced to buy an entirely new copy altogether.
Another disadvantage and limitation of known ESD virtual stores is that once the download page is provided to the client computer with the URL of the title at the download site, such URL may be recorded for later unauthorized use. Typically, the URL is a static address of the location of the title at the download server that needs to remain active, such that the URL can be provided to legitimate subsequent purchasers of the title. In a problem called deep linking, the URL after it has been recorded may be distributed through email, Usenet or other websites, such that unauthorized users may freely download the title that another has paid for located at this URL.
Accordingly, deep linking enables a greater degree of unauthorized access and use in that the static URL may now be freely obtained worldwide, as compared to the limited distribution of unauthorized copies of a title distributed through tangible media. Although the aforementioned digital rights management schemes may render the unauthorized copies obtained through deep linking to be generally unusable, such schemes do nothing to prevent deep linking. Even with digital rights management, unauthorized copies of titles obtained through deep linking may be vulnerable to being unlocked and then freely distributed.
Yet another disadvantage and limitation of known ESD virtual stores is that products of different types, namely boxed software titles, hardware and ESD titles, are generally not capable of being ordered or paid for in a single on-line transaction. For example, although the virtual store's contents may list these different types of products on one or more pages, typically the selection of the non-ESD items (the boxed software titles and hardware) results in a shopping cart style transaction to occur, whereas selection of one or more ESD titles results in a redirect to another web server. The redirect is typically made to a digital rights management web server operated by a provider (or its licensee) of a particular digital rights management scheme, such as discussed above.
A further disadvantage and limitation relating to this type of virtual store is that the redirect may either open a new second window for the ESD transaction, or may cause the shopping cart window to close and have only the ESD window active. In either event, two transactions are then required at the client, the purchase of the shopping cart items at the virtual store for subsequent physical delivery, and the purchase of the ESD title from the digital rights server to effect the electronic download.
Therefore, a need exists for a virtual store which overcomes one or more disadvantages and limitations of the prior art hereinabove set forth. There exists a need wherein a virtual store can provide a subsequent copy of an ESD title to a purchaser of such title in the event of loss of the original copy of such title. There also exists a need for a virtual store wherein ESD titles can not be obtained through deep linking by unauthorized users. There exists a further need for a virtual store in which ESD and non-ESD items may be purchased in a single transaction.